The present invention is directed to a marble track which is constructed on a two-dimensional surface, such as a refrigerator door, where the path of the marble includes open-air trajectories.
One of the most well-known of the currently available marble track construction toys is Blocks and Marbles.TM., manufactured by Tedco, Inc. of Hagerstown, Ind., and a similar product, called Amazing Marbles.TM., is manufactured by TNT, Inc. of Dallas, Tex. The components of these toys include cubes which have an internal marble channel with a right-angle turn therethrough, and rectangular blocks which have an exposed trough for the marble to roll along. The cubes are constructed to be used with one section of the channel oriented vertically, and the opening at the top of the cube is widened to facilitate capture of a falling marble. A marble track is constructed using this toy by stacking the cubes and rectangular blocks such that a marble dropped into the interior channel of a cube near the top of the track, or rolled along a trough in a rectangular block near the top of the track, will pass through a sequence of interior channels and troughs as it descends along the track.
A disadvantage of this construction toy is that cubes and rectangular blocks from the construction set are to be used to support the cubes and rectangular blocks that form the marble track, thereby limiting the length and height of the marble track. Another disadvantage of this construction toy is that the positions of the cubes and rectangular blocks are limited to points on a three-dimensional grid to provide the alignments necessary.
A wide variety of other marble track construction toys have been patented and marketed over the last hundred years. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,876 by Daniel B. Klitsner discloses a constructable marble track consisting of track segments of a variety of geometries, including curved track segments, track segments for launching the marble into a mid-air trajectory, and track segments for catching the marble from a mid-air trajectory. Each track segment includes a cylindrical stacking element which may be removably inserted into the cylindrical stacking element of another track segment, thereby limiting the heights of the track segments to multiples of the height of the cylindrical stacking element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,090 by Rolf Eisenburg discloses a marble track where the trackway consists of a pair of flexible elongated rods which are supported on a horizontal surface by support poles. The support poles are inserted into holes in a base plate which are located at positions on a two-dimensional grid. Although the heights at which the flexible elongated rods are attached to the support poles can be adjusted, this trackway does not allow mid-air trajectories of the marble.
Swedish Patent No. 47513 by Schmiederer discloses a marble track consisting of track dowels and cubic blocks having channels therethrough. The channels through the cubic blocks have widened mouths into which the ends of the track dowels are to rest. Because the track dowels are of fixed lengths, the cubic blocks must essentially be separated by the lengths of the track dowels. This marble track does not include any elements which can function to launch the marble into a mid-air trajectory.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,252,616 by Ellen W. Reif discloses a marble track consisting of chutes which are supported on a horizontal surface by pins which are inserted through bores in support rods which are mounted in base blocks. The bores are spaced at regular intervals along the support rods and the bottoms of the chutes have downward projections to prevent the chutes from sliding off the pins. Therefore, the number of orientations of the chutes, and the height of the track is limited.
It should be noted that none of these prior art toys provide a marble track toy constructed on a vertical surface. Furthermore, none of these prior art toys provide a marble track construction toy where the locations or orientations of the components are infinitely adjustable. Furthermore, none of these prior art toys provide a marble track construction toy where the track elements need not support and/or stabilize each other. Furthermore, none of these prior art toys provide a marble track construction toy where the player can design a marble tracks having high or low positioning precision requirements. Furthermore, the size of the marble tracks of the prior art toys is limited by the size and number of track components.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a construction toy, particularly a toy for construction of a track for a marble to roll down.
Furthermore, it is also an object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy having track elements which are removably attachable on a vertical surface.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a marble track construction toy which is not limited in height by the number or size of the components.
In addition, it is also an object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy having mid-air trajectories that are not limited in height by the number or size of the components.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy whose size can be extended indefinitely.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy where the components are not restricted to positions on a three-dimensional, two-dimensional, or even one-dimensional grid.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy where the locations of the components are infinitely adjustable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy where the orientations of the components are infinitely adjustable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy where track elements need not support and/or stabilize each other, and only function to control the path of the marble, thereby substantially increasing the number of constructable track geometries and facilitating ease of assembly, dissassembly and replacement of sections of the track.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy where the track can be constructed to incorporate large mid-air trajectories and therefore require high-precision positioning of the components, or the track can be constructed to incorporate smaller mid-air trajectories and therefore require lower-precision positioning of the components.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a marble track construction toy having kinetic components.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide a toy comprised of chutes, kinetic pivoting elements, and bumpers which are removably attachable to a vertical surface.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and the ensuing detailed description. These various embodiments and their ramifications are addressed in greater detail in the Detailed Description.